Paul Smith's College VIC Art Exhibitions
ABOUT THE VIC
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October 15 - November 29
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November 30 - April 1
Open 7 days a Week
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Daily 9am-5pm
Trails
Dawn to Dusk
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8023 State Route 30
Paul Smiths, New York 12970
518-327-6241
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The PSC VIC offers two beautiful art exhibition spaces with rotating shows. Exhibits are available for viewing in the VIC building during open business hours. Admission is free. Artists interested in having a show in our galleries should e-mail us at vic@paulsmiths.edu .
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Taking Care of the Birds
May 29 – June 29 (2019)
Heron Marsh Gallery
This year’s keynote speaker for the Great Adirondack Birding Celebration at the VIC, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, was quoted by National Geographic last year when they kicked off The Year of the Bird: “If you take care of the birds, you take care of most of the environmental problems in the world.” Artists from around the North Country will display works that interpret Dr. Lovejoy’s thesis.
Reception: June 14, 5:30 – 7pm
Celebrating 30 Years of the VIC
July 1 – October 14 (2019)
Great Room
The Paul Smith’s VIC first opened its doors 30 years ago in May 1989—it’s our anniversary! No matter the season, there is no shortage of inspirational landscapes on our trail system. Artworks produced over the past 3 decades on or inspired by the VIC property will be on display throughout the entire first floor of the facility until we close the season in October. Please help us celebrate 30 years of sunrises, mist on the marsh, bog habitat, boreal birds, fungi, amphibians, children racing around balsam firs on snowshoes, lunch in the sunspace, the Boreal Life Trail—the wonders and joys of the VIC.
Reception: July 5, 5:30 – 7pm
PAST EXHIBITS
Renewal
April 28 – June 23
Artists were encouraged to interpret this year’s theme, renewal, in any artistic medium. They were also asked to prepare a brief statement about the idea or inspiration presented. The result is a diverse show of over 30 pieces. Some of the artists will be present during SAMFest—join us and help celebrate 5 years of SAM Fest.
…many a feather…, Spring 2018
May 25 – June 25 2018, Heron Marsh Gallery
Well researched and detailed, Lisa McLaughlin’s lifelike paintings highlight the unique features of each avian species.
Decomposition, Fall 2017 Juried Show
September 23 – October 9 2017, Heron Marsh Gallery
The Paul Smith’s College VIC is proud to announce Decomposition, featuring digitally-submitted pieces embodying the rich process of decomposition as a bridge between death and renewal. This exhibit will be featured in the VIC’s Heron Marsh Gallery. The gallery offers 100 linear feet of exhibition space, featuring natural stone walls, vaulted ceiling and ample natural light through UV-coated windows, all housed within a popular nature center in the world-renowned Adirondack Park located in upstate New York.
Meet the Jurors
Cory E. Card is the Curator and Director of Visual Arts at View arts center in Old Forge, New York. He holds an MFA in Fine Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology. He previously held positions in the Exhibitions Department at the George Eastman House Museum, and has taught courses in critical theory, professional practices, drawing, two dimensional design and studio survey at Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY College at Brockport and Monroe Community College in Rochester. On top of his curatorial and programming duties, he is a practicing visual artist, whose current body of work, Sweepings, is an investigation into the microcosm of dust and debris.
Craig Milewski, PhD, MFA, is a Professor at Paul Smith’s College, Department of Natural Science, and teaches courses in fisheries, environmental sciences, natural resource management, and occasionally writing. He has held previous positions as a fisheries biologist in Minnesota and watershed ecologist in South Dakota. He has coupled his science background with an MFA in Writing from Vermont College, obtaining a dual-genre degree in creative nonfiction and poetry, and studying the parallels between poetry and the stirring
of an ecological conscience.
Submissions are no longer accepted. Please download this PDF to learn more.
2017 Plein Air Paint-Out & Exhibit
September 1 – 7: Paint-Out
September 8 – 20: Plein Air Exhibit
The Paul Smith’s College VIC is a real gem in the Adirondacks. Miles of easily accessible trails wind through old growth forest, along Barnum Brook, Black Pond and Heron Marsh, up to the summit of Jenkins Mountain, through bogs, fens, and past beaver ponds. There are 100’s of great painting locations and the VIC hosts painting days during the Adirondack Plein Air Festival in August and the Publisher’s Invitational “Adirondack Paint Week” in June every year.
This event will invite artists to paint throughout the VIC and Paul Smith’s College property, as well as neighboring Barnum, Mountain, Osgood, and Jones Ponds, Lower St Regis Lake, White Pine Camp and other scenic places nearby.
Artists can paint there beginning Friday Sept 1 (Labor Day weekend) and through Thursday Sept 7. Come paint for a day, a couple of days, or the entire week. Framed paintings will be due Friday Sept 8, with a reception from 3 – 5 pm. Works will remain on exhibit in both galleries at the VIC until September 20, during our beautiful peak fall colors. There will be a 30% commission on sales and artists will be responsible for coming to pick up their work at the close of the exhibit.
Step Lightly, Mary Woodcock Johnson
A Walk in the Woods
2017 Juried Show
July 1 – August 27
The Paul Smith’s College VIC invited regional artists to submit original, two-dimensional work, in any medium, representing the artist’s interpretation of the theme, A Walk in the Woods. Artist and juror Winn Rea spent hours reviewing over 80 submissions and selected over 50 works for the show, considering up and coming artists, alignment with the show’s theme, and more
View our full list of selected works and award winners here.
Flush by Ed Williams
Birds!
June 2 – July 13, 2017, Heron Marsh Gallery
The Paul Smith’s College VIC is proud to show this year’s bird-focused art installation. Birds! is an exhibit highlighting the beauty of our favorite Adirondack feathered friends. Joy, smiles and awe are guaranteed thank to the works of the 23 talented local artists who are featured in this art show.
Edith Urban, Phoenix Rising – St. Regis
Connections
April 22 – June 25, 2017
This year’s Science, Art and Music Festival (SAMFest) marked the start of our current Great Room Art Exhibition, Connections. In keeping with the theme of SAMFest, this exhibition features over 20 artists whose works interpret our connection to the land, connection of people with each other and the natural world, our connection to our past, and more.
Arnold Sauther, Spiral Inspiration
With photographs, watercolors, prints, and many other media, this beautiful installation highlights some of the Adirondack region’s best artists. Each piece provides a unique statement so that viewers can gain insight into the artist’s individual understanding of connections and their artistic process.
Photo Shoot-Out
May 3 – May 31, 2017
Each year the Paul Smith’s College VIC invites local photographers to participate in a photo shoot-out. This year, artists were asked to take photographs at the VIC on Earth Day, April 22, 2017. Each artist then submits up to five photographs from that day’s photo shoot, which are then installed in the Heron Marsh Gallery at the VIC.
Harvesting Red Osier
Shedding Light on the Working Forest: A Traveling Exhibition of Painting and Poetry
February 3 through March 25, 2017
We live in the forest, that huge biome named the Northern Forest, to be exact. In addition to all the products it gives us, the forest is our home. Perhaps that is the reason we often feel restored by simply walking in the woods.
-Tom Slayton
This project celebrates the landscape of the working forest and the voices of those who have honed skills into a livelihood there. Shedding Light draws on the artistic friendship of a painter and a poet who are committed to subjects that have been largely overlooked by the arts.
Kathleen Kolb evokes what is solid, luminous, yet ephemeral in the scenes she gathers and painstakingly paints. She talks about how a moment of “emotional ignition” kindles a work of art. As a writing partner, Verandah Porche befriends, questions and listens, to unearth and preserve the poetry embedded in lived experience. She calls this process “finding the verse in conversation.”
Watershed, Summer Morning
THE PROJECT: Painter Kathleen Kolb and poet Verandah Porche have narrowed their focus to those who harvest timber in the rural northeast. The images and the accompanying narratives honor the workers and open their environment and their insights to the viewer. The artistic intent is neither critique nor sentiment, but to shed light on beauty and sensitivity, amid the danger and the din of machines. Kolb’s visual art spans a twenty year period and includes many pieces that are in private and public collections. Porche’s work distills and amplifies the voices of people engaged with the working forest.
Grappling Logs at Dawn
THE NEED: This exhibition engages the community with a vital interest in the forest as a work place, a home, a field of study, and a playground, as well as viewers who have never set foot in the woods. This work matters because everyone depends on the forest for oxygen, clean water, wildlife habitat, soil stability, timber, fuel, recreation, and for inspiration. Consider the forest products that are taken for granted: the frame of a home, intimate paper products, treasured photographs, the pencil and shopping list, the frame of an easy chair, the match, the kitchen cupboard, the coffee table and the books it holds. This is only the start of a thoughtful inventory. Viewing these paintings and poems can enrich an appreciation of the working of our forest landscape. It provokes conversations about stewardship and how we care for our home places and our community.
A Deeper Sense: an Art-Science Collaboration
December 10, 2016 through January 31, 2017
A Deeper Sense featured work of local artists and include diverse media including watercolor, oil, fabric, mixed media, photography, video, and poetry. The installation was a collaboration between Paul Smith’s College students and local artists. During the fall 2016 semester, area artists and poets were invited to shadow young scientists in their ecological field studies, to learn about ecology, and to produce pieces aimed at capturing a feeling of connection with the land. These studies featured three projects: development of a land management plan for the Adirondack Mountain Reserve (Ausable Club); long-term monitoring of the Smitty Creek Watershed, located near St. Regis Mountain; and a study of factors that influence the distribution of black spruce and tamarack in the Adirondacks.
Reindeer by Roma Czerepuzko
Winter Wonders
January 4 through March 31
Head to the VIC and discover our local artist’s interpretation of this installation’s “winter” theme.